China’s WeChat Adds a Mobile Flight Booking Service

Skift Take

Flights are an interesting first step, but hotels and local events have more potential in the long run.

— Jason Clampet

WeChat’s m-commerce offering has added flight booking service that is provided by LV.com (formerly 17u.cn), a Chinese online travel service Tencent has a stake in.

Payments, of course, are supported by WeChat Payment.

After purchasing a ticket, you’ll be able to receive flight status notifications or other information by subscribing to LV’s WeChat official account.

Right now, it’s only available for users in two Chinese cities: Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Not only more cities but also other online booking services run by LV.com will be added later on, the company says.

So far, there have been a dozen categories of m-commerce offerings on WeChat, under My Band Cards channel, that enable users to purchase all kinds of goods or services (see below). So it’s possible the booking services for sightseeing tickets or hotels, which currently are absent, will be added later.